St Edward the Martyr

St Edward, son of King Edgar the Peaceable, became King of England in 975 when he was still a boy. He continued his father's work of restoring churches and monasteries and held prayer and Christian piety to be the heart of a true kingdom. On 18 March 978 he rode alone to Corfe Castle to visit his young half-brother Ethelred. As he took a cup of welcome, he was stabbed by servants of his stepmother's household. His horse dragged the dying king down the hill. His body was hidden in a poor woman's hut, where a heavenly light shone and healed her blindness. Later a pillar of light revealed his grave, and his incorrupt relics were taken to Shaftesbury Abbey, where many were healed. Thought lost at the Reformation, the relics were found in 1931 and given to the Orthodox Church. In 1984 they were enshrined at Brookwood, Surrey, where Orthodox pilgrims still venerate this innocent royal martyr of the undivided Church.

St Edward was added to the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) calendar by its Synod in 1983, and ROCOR received his relics in 1984. However, the Brookwood brotherhood that guards them left ROCOR in 2007, when ROCOR entered communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. It is now under the Greek Old-Calendarist 'Genuine Orthodox Christians' (Archbishop Kallinikos of Athens), so do not call the shrine 'ROCOR' today. Secular historians doubt that the Brookwood bones are Edward's. Anglicans also keep his 18 March feast (1662 Book of Common Prayer).